1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a load object determination apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the related art, a load object determination apparatus is known, where, for example, load sensors are installed at two supporting parts at one of left and right sides or one of front and rear sides from among four supporting parts below a seat of a vehicle, and a type of a load object on the seat is determined based on part of the load exerted on all the supporting parts (for example, see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2013-169947 (Patent Reference No. 1)).
Thus, it is possible to provide a load object determination apparatus at low cost because it is possible to determine the type of an occupant by installing load sensors on minimum two supporting parts from among seat supporting parts, the number of which is normally four.
Also, in the related art, a load object determination apparatus is known, where, in order to determine the type of a load object on a seat, determination thresholds are prepared such as an adult determination threshold, a child seat determination threshold, and/or the like, and it is determined whether the load object is an adult or a child seat by using the determination threshold(s) (for example, see Patent Reference No. 1).
According to Patent Reference No. 1, it is determined that an adult is seated, when the total of loads (total load) detected by load sensors installed at two of front and rear places at the left of a seat is greater than the adult determination threshold, and it is determined that a child seat is lashed when the total load is less than the child seat determination threshold.